The Hollow
by yllektra
Summary: Sometimes Paul thinks that he is more fragmented than Echo ever could be, because every time they meet, Echo forgets, but he never does and never will.


**Title:** The Hollow  
**Pairing/Characters:** Paul/Echo - Paul pov  
**Warnings:** None, really.  
**Spoilers:** This could have happened… Maybe it did..  
**Disclaimer:** Nothing's mine. Shocking... I know! =P

**Summary:** _"I'm gonna put a stop to this"  
"No you won't. You like it too much" she smiles, biting the side of his neck playfully.  
She obviously means the kissing, he means something deeper.  
As deep as the poison they have been injecting in her veins and the smoke they put in her head to cloud out the nightmares they have created for her._  
**Word Count:** 967  
**Author's Notes: **This is a story I wrote while the show was still on. Crossposting it here from my lj fic community for the purpose of safekeeping.

* * *

**The Hollow - : A Paul/Echo fic  
**

He feels her hands on his shoulders.  
Soft and small and warm, like a hot wave engulfing him whole.

It doesn't burn, no, it doesn't because he feels already hot, too hot than he had anticipated, but he knows it is wrong.

He wishes it wasn't, but there is nothing he can do to change that.

He found the money; he became an engagement with somebody else as a front.

It was his idea, his own crazy idea but now he experiences it as if it is happening to  
someone else.

Someone else wanting her.

Someone else shivering at her touch, smiling at her voice and gasping at how beautiful she is.

It's like he is watching from a distance, like a peeping Tom as two people could strip to their souls, till their essences complemented each other.

He already knows their bodies are a perfect fit.

He could sense it the minute he first saw her.

He knows the hollow on the base of her neck where her neck is tied to her collarbones, is where his fingers are supposed to go.

Feeling the warmth of her skin, the suppleness of flesh…

And when she turns her head leaning towards him it is her scent that makes his head spin.  
But he is not supposed to lose focus. This is not a game although she may think it is.

"_You are not a real person"_ he mouths and jerks away from her.

She frowns but she smiles again, like it didn't mean a thing.  
It doesn't, she doesn't remember this is staged.

This is what they asked for. A hot girl, adventurous and ready for some action.

"_Baby, I can be whoever you want me to be. I can be that person for you"_ her voice like caramel cream spread over waffle.

"_And who do you want to be, Caroline?"_ he starts.

"_My name is Leslie, I never thought I was so forgettable"_ she jokes.

"_I want to be what you want me to be, baby"_

She turns to look at her.

All the right words to seduce a man, but nothing in her eyes.

No real emotion, no life, no joy, no satisfaction.

Just this little game of deception and nothingness.

How many times has she done this?

How many times has she been forced to unwillingly give her body and her trust to people who weren't worthy of them?

How many times was the "wipe" not enough to wash away the filth of those hands groping her, of the hands harming her and the insanity of it all?

What did it take?

How long did it take to wipe her clean?

How long did it take?

How many sessions were necessary till she was stripped of everything that made her the person she once was?

And how painful is it really to watch a real person become a doll, an empty piece of paper in front of you?

Aren't you instinctively drawn to put a stop to this?

Is there an amount of money that could justify subjecting human beings to such misery and humiliation?

Paul couldn't wrap his mind around this, not like Caroline was now wrapping herself around him, her body pressing up against his, swaying her hips seductively, her lips kissing his earlobe.

"_I am gonna put a stop to this"_ he says and he sounds determined.

She doesn't know what he means, she couldn't.

"_No you won't. You like it too much"_ she smiles, biting the side of his neck playfully.

She obviously means the kissing, he means something deeper.

As deep as the poison they have been injecting in her veins and the smoke they put in her head to cloud out the nightmares they have created for her.

"_What about you, Leslie? Do you like it too much?"  
_

"_I like everything"_ she says and there's something childlike in her voice when she speaks.

Like she has been reduced to a child, with narrow vision.

The only things that exist are those in front of her eyes.

Him, herself and this charade.

Once he is removed from her sight, he will cease to exist and she won't whine, she won't complain.

_Just another game she would have to put away till the next time she is called to play the mistress, the sex-kitten, because she is so good at this._

Everyone wants to feel like they have someone fooled or could have.

It makes it more exciting and it makes them feel more powerful, superior.

"_Do you, now?"_ he teases indulging her for a brief moment.

He grabs her small arms around his shoulders and presses them against her chest folding them like trying to scold a child.

"_Now behave"_ he mouths and takes out his cell phone. "_I am gonna put a stop to this"_ he repeats.

"_You could stop it, but why would you wanna?"_ she whines against his chest, while he speaks.

"_I am done with her. You can take her back now"_

Funny. Two short sentences and her personality is gone again and she will stop being Leslie, Echo, Caroline or anything in between.

"_I will be there in a minute"_ Boyd answers because he listens, he lurks, he always does and Paul feels grateful to him and disgusted by him at the same time.

Boyd knows, he is a part of it, he has the power to stop it, but he doesn't.

Instead he nods and smiles and obeys like it doesn't mean a thing that a person is de-humanized in front of his eyes.

"_Why did you do that? We could have so much fun!"_ she asks again as she watches him stand up, straighten his clothes and walk towards the bathroom.

Boyd cannot see him.

"_We will, but when we do, you will remember"_. 

~ Fin ~


End file.
